The constitutionalism of Ronald Dworkin and his theory of law as institutionalized political morality

Abstract

In this paper I inquire about the compatibility of Ronald Dworkin's legal philosophy model with neo-constitutionalism and other versions of constitutionalism. My point is that the substantive constitutionalism of Dworkin, considered in the context of his theory of law as institutionalized political morality, is incompatible with the fundamental theses that both his supporters and his detractors attribute to neoconstitutionalism, as well as other models that take the Constitution as a kind of second-order justification of principles and values, a bridge between law and morality or a determinant of the exclusion of the rules of legal reasoning.